Canon Powershot A70 Review

By: Steve's Digicams

Review posted 3/10/03

Click to take a QTVR tour of the A70

The 3.2-megapixel PowerShot A70 (and the physically identical 2-megapixel Powershot A60) incorporates numerous high-end features including a 3x optical zoom lens, 5-point AiAF autofocus system, enhanced Movie Mode with Sound for clips up to 3-minutes, close focus to 2-inches and a full range of exposure modes including Program, Shutter Priority, Aperture Priority, Manual and several pre-programmed Scene modes. The A70 (and A60) is compatible with the optional WP-DC700 Waterproof Housing good to depths of 130 feet, as well as supplementary wide-angle, telephoto and macro converters for added flexibility. Connect the Powershot A70 (or A60) directly to a Canon Card Photo Printer CP-100 or letter-size S820D, S830D, and S530D photo printers and make prints without the need of a computer.

Canon's proprietary image processor, called DIGIC, was developed specifically for use with its line of digital cameras and combines the jobs of image processing and camera function control into one chip. It handles nearly every digital camera function including JPEG compression/expansion; memory card control; LCD/Video control and processing; gain control (control of CCD signal amplification); Auto Exposure; Auto Focus; Auto White Balance control and most other functions of the camera. The result is a camera that offers faster and more powerful AF, faster image processing, longer battery life, and the ability to record up to 30 seconds of VGA resolution or up to 3 minutes of 320x240 resolution full motion video with sound.

Over the past 68 years, Canon has accumulated a vast amount of photographic data and know-how and used it to create some of the most innovative camera products in the marketplace. Now, using that same data and know-how, Canon has developed an exclusive technology called iSAPS (Intelligent Scene Analysis based on Photographic Space) that can predict certain camera settings such as focusing distance, exposure and optimum white balance based on zoom focal length, overall light level and tonal distribution data. Canon refers to this collective data as "Photographic Space." By incorporating iSAPS technology into its PowerShot line, the cameras can analyze a scene just before the image is made and in doing so, increase the speed and precision of the camera's autofocus, auto exposure and auto white balance.

Available (USB connection only. Exclusive software program RemoteCapture is included in the camera kit.)

Recording media :

CompactFlash Type I card (16MB included)

File format :

Design rule for Camera File system, DPOF-compliant

Image recording format :

Still images :

JPEG (Exif 2.2)*

Movies :

AVI (Image data: Motion JPEG, Audio data: WAVE [monaural])

Compression :

Superfine/ Fine/ Normal

Number of recording pixels :

Still images :

Large :

2048 x 1536 pixels

Medium 1 :

1600 x 1200 pixels

Medium 2 :

1024 x 768 pixels

Small :

640 x 480 pixels

Movies** :

640 x 480 pixels (Approx. 30 sec.)**

320 x 240 pixels (Approx. 3 min.)**

160 x 120 pixels (Approx. 3 min.)**

** Approx. 15 frames/second** This is the maximum recording time per movie clip for the optionalCanon FC-256MH CF card (not sold in some regions). ** The data in parentheses refer to the maximum movie length per shooting

* This digital camera supports Exif 2.2 (also called "Exif Print"). Exif Print is a standard for enhancing the communication between digital cameras and printer. By connecting to an Exif Print-compliant printer, the camera's image data at the time of shooting is used and optimized, yielding extremely high quality prints.

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